 The personal injury lawyers working on behalf of the families that were affected in the refinery blast of 2005 have been working exhaustively to bring some form of closure to them. The blast which happened in Texas City claimed the lives of 15 people and injured hundreds of others, leaving both emotional and physical scars that would take years to heal if they were to heal at all.
No amount of hard cash is likely to bring peace to the individuals involved, regardless of how hard their injury lawyers worked to battle the no doubt Goliath like representation the organisation would have employed to protect their interests and most importantly their pockets. What it can do is aid any medical bills they would have had to undergo following the blast. Similarly any form of compensation received by the families and the victims of the blast would help those that may no longer have medical bills to fork out for, but have been left injured so badly that they themselves are no longer able to work. Without the cash received in the form of compensation, such individuals are hard pressed to provide for themselves financially without mentioning how they are expected to provide for their families.
The blast generated a massive number of compensation claims which eventually totalled over 4,000. In a relatively short amount of time, all but two of the claims have been settled. A claim of emotional injury that came about as a direct result of the blast which was launched in the direction of the fuel company which was set to go to trial next month in the state courts in Galveston was in fact settled on Tuesday. Another four claims that had reached state courts were also settled this week on Friday, leaving only one more case to be settled in state court and another to be settled in Federal court.
The personal injury lawyers for the victims and their families did not disclose the terms of the agreement but perhaps in time the magnitude of the financial dent left by this case will be realised. The largest refinery owned by BP experienced an explosion on March 23rd 2005, the blast was so powerful that there were windows some 8 kilometres away that shattered as a result. It wasn’t just the families and victims that went after the large corporation but the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration also had matters to settle with the company.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, fined BP a record setting $21 million for over 300 safety violations that could be directly tied to the explosion. Add to the over 300 safety violations to the more than 4,000 claims hurled towards the giant company and there is little wonder that they set aside some $2.1 billion to “compensate” the “people harmed” said the BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell. He went on to say that their “goal” from the “outset, has been to fairly compensate” those that had been adversely affected by “this tragedy”.
As BP’s spokesman he stated that the organisation was “pleased to have resolved substantially all of the claims” that had “arisen from the March 23rd explosion”. Perhaps the victims and their families are also pleased to have the ‘matter’ resolved, perhaps with each claim settled they will be one step closer to some form, any form of closure. Updated on 24/08/2008
|